An EU-funded research project led by St George’s, University of London, has developed a new diagnostic tool for malaria that can detect both the infection and resistance to drugs in 15 minutes. The Nanomal project partners aim to start field tests this year. If they are successful, the device could be deployed in developing countries from 2015.

Another key partner in the GBP 4.4 million (Euro 5.2 million) project is QuantuMDx Group, a UK-based handheld diagnostics and DNA sequencing specialist. The prototype – a pioneering smart-phone device - aims to provide the same quality of results as a laboratory at a fraction of the time and cost, making it ideal for use in the field. It will allow doctors to prescribe personalised combinations of anti-malarial drugs to patients.

The project, supported with GBP 3.4 million (Euro 4 million) in funding from the EU's seventh research framework programme, was set up in response to increasing signs that the malaria parasite is mutating to resist the most powerful classes of anti-malaria drug combination therapies that include artemisinins as a component. The UK researchers worked with teams at the University of Tuebingen in Germany and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.